The Power of Dreams

We have two basic motivators that propel us through life.  One is the whip, which motivates by fear of dire consequences - you have bills to pay so when the alarm goes off you stuff yourself into your clothes and go off to a job, or to look for a job, come home exhausted, stuff in some food, and collapse into bed, only to do it over again the next day and the day after and the day after that.  There is little motivation other than you simply must.  Life requires it.

The other way is for the love of something bigger, better and more.  Instead of a whip, it is the carrot, always before you, enticing you to go on.  (As I recall this is how they used to motivate a racehorse… maybe they still do.)  The principle is the same for us.  You can't wait to get up in the morning to start again down the exciting road you envision. 

Fear pushes.  Love draws.  Fear contracts.  Love expands.  Fear thinks scarcity.  Love thinks abundance.

What's the Difference?

The difference between being drawn, or pushed, through life is a sense of purpose.  Being pushed is dull – that is, it has no edge to cut through the morass.  It is ambiguous; there is no energy to it.  One proposed direction as is good as any other. Being drawn on the other hand has a clear direction, a destination, and an end point.  You know where you are going – even if you don't know exactly how you're going to get there.

You need to know what it is that you want to create.  This could be something tangible like art, a career, or a meal.  It could be something more intangible like a relationship or the way you want a certain event, or situation, or the rest of your life, to feel. This is where dreams come in. 

Dream Big

Think of the characteristics of nighttime dreams.  They don't have to make sense.  They can include people, places and things you've never seen.  They can help you reconcile difficult situations.  You can try out things that are too risky to do in real life because of such things as, say, gravity.  Dreams are important because they can take you out of the here and now into what is possible.  Your daytime dreams or goals can be just as dramatic and out of the box – if you give yourself permission to have them. 

I encourage people to create a future worth having.  Think about that for a minute.  Are you creating - right now - today, a future for yourself that is compelling? A future that will draw you into it in such a powerful way that it makes you gasp?  Dreams will ignite, shape, and structure your future.

There are two facets to creating a compelling life and a future worth having: 

1.  Finding that which excites you - your life purpose if you will - and moving toward it
2.  Pinpointing things that get in the way, and either reconciling or setting limits on them

For now we will look at ways to find your purpose.  Next time we'll look at what gets in the way.

Here are a few exercises to get you started on the road to discovery. 

The first one is very simple.  Write down 99 things that you want to be, do, have and create before you die - a bucket list of sorts.  If you had unlimited money but a finite amount of time, what would you do?  Don't settle for 59 things. Go for the full 99.

Another exercise is to write about an ideal day in your perfect future. Include the events, the feelings and your traveling companions.  Start by first writing about the room in which you wake up.  What does the floor feel like when your feet touch down?  Is it cool?  Soft and carpeted?  Warm from the sun?  Then proceed to writing about who is with you.  What do you do?  Take off from there.  

Then ponder these exploratory questions that I've taken directly out of my client intake forms:

• What activities energize you and cause you to completely lose track of time and your surroundings?
• Who really inspires you, and why?
• What’s missing in your life, the presence of which would make it more fulfilling?
• What special knowledge do you have?
• What do you value most in your relationships with others?
• What do people tease you about?
• What drives you crazy?
• What activities have heart and meaning for you?
• What are the most useful and empowering aspects of your spiritual beliefs?
• What makes you really angry?
• What is it that you feel so strongly about that no one can change your mind?

After you answer these questions review them for patterns and commonalities.   What do you notice?  What do these exercises reveal to you about your life dreams and goals?  I'd love to know.